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| LA area. Here is a pretty good quick overview of how to travel freely. |
The brilliant and kind Robert Sapolsky points out that exercise is very often the best way to deal with stress. (Book.)
He notes that the stress response evolved to avoid being eaten.
Stress is meant to prime our bodies to fight or flee, not to think more. Thus: "fighting or fleeing" (lifting weights, running, etc.) is a good way to deal with stress.
A very smart (and tall) friend told me that going to a silent retreat made their mental health worse - being alone with their thoughts was not a good idea. Anne and I have a long list of people we know (or know of) who are big-time meditators yet are quite poorly adjusted.
This is not meant to shit on meditation. But I think simply saying "meditate" or "be mindful" is worse than saying nothing. In my experience, a framework like Robert Wright's Why Buddhism Is True (or even just this) is vital for any meditative practice.
More broadly, "smart" people tend to think [sic] that everything can be dealt with by thinking. And many of us (e.g., raised Catholic) tend to think [sic] poorly of "the body." Neither of these are accurate, and often lead to more suffering.
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